After 13 years, the soap build-up on the inside of the drum had closed off > 40% of the drain holes and restricted almost all others to some extent. Otherwise the machine works fine.

Using an aluminum nail (so as not to scratch or chip the drum), I poked through the holes so that it would drain OK, followed by a good vacuuming. (Chip avoidance successful, btw.)

I got some of it out by running through a couple of rinse cycles. Loose crud in the sink filled a one-pint container, and lots more went down the sink drain.

The problem now is that there is a lot of this crud on the outside of the drum that will not go down the machine's drain mechanism. Judging by the occasional chunk that does come out, much of this is fairly large, ranging in size from cigarette butt to finger joint. The material looks and feels much like mortar.

OK, now what? Is there a fairly direct way to pull out the drum so as to remove this stuff? Or live with it? Or call the pros? How much damage am I doing by simply using the machine?

Hummm, sounds like too much soap is used, this dries like concrete.....Remove the case, splashguard, agitator, lock nut, spin basket and clean this out as it might damage your pump. You will be amaized at what you will see on the inside of the fiberglass tub also, the slimy mildew evil smelling stuff, scrape this off with a puddy knife. Use less soap or go to liquid and be sure to use hot water and bleach now and then to keep this probelm from developing again.

Lot of the stuff which accumulates is dead skin/hair and natural body oils. I once saw one where the lady's husband (marine engine mechanic) had been washing his overalls, scraped a bucketful of tar-like gunge from the tub.

She indicated that he would be making alternative laundry arrangements for his work overalls in future.

Case removal and agitator extraction went OK, and as expected, there was considerable loose scunge and lots of the same cemented-on soap build-up all through the insides.

The problem now is removing the tub, specifically the spanner nut that holds the tub in place. I beat away on it (using tips from topic_ids 882, 2196, 2107, 1830 and 1491; this post being 2562) using a variety of pounding devices and things to direct the pounding. And got nowhere. Also tried using a big pair of Channel-Lock pliers. Same.

I figure I needed the proper tool. So I tried four hardware stores, including Sears and Home Depot, and came up empty. A quick web search was not much more helpful. (Kiss half a day off goodbye.)

So I will dutifully order the tool from your on-line store, and while awaiting its arrival, put the machine back together.

I was hoping to get the bottom-of-tub crud out prior to further use of the machine, but that now seems improbable. I suppose I could set the whole apparatus on its side or upside down and, using various tools (yardstick, snowbrush from the car), shake/sweep it out.

The tool is now here (in case anyone wondered how long it takes for one to arrive, economy class postage).

Reassembly of the machine the other day was uneventful, thanks to your site's good diagrams, which I printed and taped to the wall.

Before I ran it for real, I 1/3-filled it with water, stuck a pen in the shut-off switch, advanced it to the spin cycle, and turned on the garden hose (taking extreme care not to get the hose caught), and in so doing, got a whole lot more crud out. Repeated this, got very little that time, so then ran a regular load. Seems to be fine.

I'm sure there's plenty more crud left, though, enough to justify buying the tool and taking the machine apart again. Now all I need is another day with cruddy weather, so I can finish the project!

Problem now, having gotten the spanner nut off, I cannot get the tub itself out. Four adult hands yanking on the thing, with the official printed manual sitting at our side, we can pull the tub up maybe three millimeters, and it stops with a very solid "thunk", as if we missed removing something in the way. There is a lot of soap scum all over the place, and any movement is accompanied by crud scraping against the outer plastic tub, but the inner tub rotates freely.